It’s common knowledge at this point that the Dallas Cowboys entertained the idea of drafting Johnny Manziel. Well, at least Jerry Jones seriously thought about selecting Manziel at No. 16 in this year’s draft.

As it turns out, Jerry may have literally tried to select Johnny Football. Check out this excerpt from the book Manziel Mania by Jim Dent:

“I could just see Jones grabbing Manziel with the 16th choice of the first round. I wrote a book about Jerry Jones in 1995 titled ‘King of the Cowboys.’ I know the Boss Hog. I knew that Jones’ hands were shaking when the Cowboys went on the clock with Manziel still on the board. I could envision Jones scribbling the name of Johnny Manziel on the draft card. Indeed, all of these things happened.”

“As it turned out, Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones had snatched the Manziel card straight out of his dad’s hand. Otherwise, Jerry would have drafted him and JFF would have sat for at least three years behind Tony Romo.”

That excerpt appeared in The Dallas Morning News. But in addition to the draft day picture painted by Dent, there’s also a DMN source who says that this account from Dent is inaccurate.

We may never know how close the Cowboys really were to taking Manziel, but it’s pretty clear that he was almost the guy. However, would anybody really be surprised if Dent’s version of events turned out to be true? Johnny Football is a Jerry guy through and through. Plus, it’s pretty clear that Jones is more off his rocker than ever these days.